A year ago, one of the most original voices in the Earth Observation sector, Aravind Ravichandran, put into words something that had been building in the back of my mind for a few months at that point. In this post, Aravind stressed…
the importance of having a customer-focused, solution-driven intermediary advisory layer in EO, with an objective, independent and holistic mindset.
Now, in this particular piece, he was talking about some of the big auditing firms entering the Earth Observation (EO) market (who would, ostensibly, help to ‘solve’ development problems for their client governments which the tax avoidance side of their business is exacerbating every single day…but anyway!).
And yet, even when examining the more specific EO/GIS plus development intersection alone, what he was saying truly resonated with me: Having seen both the private sector and development finance side of the equation over the past decade, I had started to notice that this layer indeed needed to be strengthened.
The problem
On the side of development partners (banks, bilaterals, government entities), there was a definite recognition that spatial questions were important and that new technologies were available to help make better decisions. You would have to have lived under a rock not to have noticed.
At the same time, the learning curve towards understanding and comparing these technologies and products was significant while the ‘black box’ problem and a hugely diversified industry were making it difficult to procure and utilise the right services correctly, especially within the complex framework of a live project.
But also on the private sector side, one could feel some aggravation. Apart from the lack of direct access for many service providers to major players in the development sector, the percentage of development finance projects which put out geo-relevant tenders was small (though slowly increasing) when compared with the vast spatial implications of these projects. And even when a call for proposals would be issued that fit your portfolio, you would be frustrated by technically inaccurate or incomplete Terms of Reference and unrealistic expectations on budget and timeline, to name only a few.
One part of the solution
This is where an “intermediary advisory layer in EO” (and, I might add, in the geospatial or simply technical solutions business in general) is essential. This layer is needed to bridge the gap, and translate objectively between the two sides.
My goal with starting Herda Consulting is to make life easier for everybody, but most of all ensure that we’re exploiting these powerful technologies to their fullest potential in the service of better development outcomes. Clients should feel confident that the solution they are procuring is the most appropriate for their project, while service providers can rest assured that their scope is well-defined, and that their clients understand the product specifications and what they’re getting. And at the end of the day, for every software engineer or geoinformatics expert, there is probably no greater feeling than knowing that their code or analysis made a real difference.
So there we are. This is an exciting time to work in this industry, and I’m glad you’re along for the ride.